As a Downtown Tampa resident for nearly three years I have had the pleasure of meeting many new friends and neighbors and am very proud of the community that we are building together. Mobility and public transportation are discussed often by both the residential and business communities that make up downtown. Tomorrow is National Dump the Pump Day where people across the country are being …
Starbucks Takes First True Step into the Knowledge Economy
The terms “knowledge economy” and “digital age” have been thrown around by professionals, pundits, academics, and politicians in some form or another for at least 20 years. Until this week however not one of them has presented a real grasp of the nature of this new economy. Most everyone has attempted to measure and understand the knowledge economy …
What Would Walt Disney Do? Bringing Tech to Florida #WWWDD
In “Section I: Visions Lost” of my book Corporate Empathy I write about Walt Disney’s biggest most daring plan ever. A plan that was scrapped and disregarded as too risky after he died. A plan that if attempted then or today (it is still viable) would completely reshape the economic landscape of the state Florida. The …
Will Apple Learn From Yahoo? How Culture Cost Yahoo $19 Billion
This week’s unimpressive announcement by Apple about the new features to be included in iOS 8 following last month’s news that Google had overtaken Apple as the worlds most valuable brand highlights how severely damaged the company’s ability to innovate has become after the loss of Steve Jobs. Apple’s second shot at doing business without Jobs …
Update on Stephanie and My Diabetes
This weekend marks four months since Stephanie did not wake up and had emergency surgery to fix a brain bleed caused by an unknown head injury that had clotted and burst. It has also been six months since I spent a weekend in the hospital newly diagnosed as a Type 1 Diabetic. My Diabetes I …
The “Invisible Hand” of Empathy is Gravity for Economics
Imagine for a moment a structural engineer who has been tasked with engineering a bridge to cross a wide river. The engineer understands the strength and weight of the steel, concrete, asphalt, and other various materials that will be assembled to build a sound structure. The engineer also understands the pressures that wind, water current, temperature, …
Six Years Later, Snickers Continues… Blunders or Brilliance?
An Adweek article showed up in my feed this afternoon from a friend, Construction Workers Yell Messages of Empowerment to Women in Snickers Stunt featuring construction workers yelling at women – with messages of empowerment. The commercial shows construction workers who instead of yelling sexist catcalls, shout positive messages like, “I’d like to show you the respect you …
The Up Side of Looking Down
Today we often read, hear about, or otherwise discuss how being constantly connected by technology through our smart phones and other devices to social media and the Internet is diminishing our appreciation for “real” conversations and building “real” relationships in the physical world. We are encouraged to unplug and disconnect as we fight very real …
Economic Laggards Face Pending Extinction
It’s been just nine lightning fast quarters since I began writing Corporate Empathy and openly discussing whether corporations acting with empathy could profitably find solutions to big social challenges. In that time I’ve found solid examples of just that. Initiatives like Conscious Capitalism, Benefit Corporations, and Sr Richard Brandson’s, The B Team consist of businesses that …
Franklin Offers New Opportunity for Poynter/Times
This week the Tampa Bay Times announced buyouts in advance of job reductions, the result of continued declines in revenue and circulation. Just five months ago the Times implemented a pay-wall while Amazon’s Jeff Bezo’s made a significant investment in a failing industry by purchasing the Washington Post. With the Post purchase in October I reiterated my January 2012 appeal that the …